Call for action over Darfur carnage

The international community has been asked to take urgent action to prevent the crisis in Darfur becoming a repeat of the mass slaughter in Rwanda.

Religious leaders gathered outside Downing Street to pray for a resolution to the suffering which has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced from their homes.

They were met by Baroness Amos, Leader of the House of Lords, who warned that the world must not once again turn a blind eye to an unfolding crisis in Africa, saying: "We do not want to see a repeat of what happened in Rwanda when the world community turned its face away."

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, was among the leaders from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths who were at the event. He said: "The situation is catastrophic in terms of the violence, the murders, the displacement of people."

He urged governments to "do all in their power" to put pressure on the Sudanese Government, which is resisting the continued presence of an African Union force in the region and a handover to United Nations peacekeepers.

The gathering was taking place as part of the Global Day for Darfur, and followed a march from the Sudanese Embassy by hundreds of protesters wearing the light blue berets of the UN to represent their call for a UN force in the area.

In a message to campaigners, Tony Blair pledged: "Sudan will stay at the top of my agenda."

The joint call for help comes after Hollywood actor George Clooney warned that millions of people would die in what he called the first genocide of the 21st century if the UN did not send peacekeepers to the region.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and over two million have fled their homes since 2003, when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum Government.

A peace agreement signed by the governments and one of the major rebel groups in May was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. But it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.